No abstract

An effect of oxygen on the cerium-catalyzed Belousov−Zhabotinsky reaction, which occurs only at low catalyst concentrations and consists of an abrupt drop in the average Ce4+ concentration, was investigated. Perturbations of this effect by addition of acrylonitrile or silver nitrate are also described. An attempt was made to model the observations by modifying the Gao−Försterling mechanism (Gao; Försterling. J. Phys. Chem. 1995, 99, 8638−8644) for the [Ru(bipy)3]2+/bromomalonic acid/bromate system by replacing the ruthenium reactions by those of cerium and adding the reactions of malonic acid in the presence of oxygen. The modified mechanism yields a qualitative interpretation of several important features of the experiments.